1. Related Applications
There are no applications related hereto now filed in this or any foreign country.
2. Field of Invention
My invention relates generally to manually operable excavating devices for snow removal and more particularly to such devices that have a flexible bag for snow collection, transportation and deposition.
3. Description of Prior Art
Many devices commonly used for snow removal, whether manually or mechanically operated, require expenditures of excessive amounts of energy in moving snow greater distances than necessary, especially vertically against the force of gravity. This problem is common in the typical snow shoveling operation or the typical snow blower. The problem has heretofore been recognized and various excavating type devices of both the pushing and pulling types similar to those commonly used in earth moving have become known. This type of device generally lessens the total amount of energy required to remove snow especially by moving it through no greater vertical distance than necessary. These devices, though helpful, have not completely solved the snow removal problems especially in manually operated snow removal tools as they do not necessarily minimize the energy required for snow removal: they oftentimes do not allow deposit of the removed snow at a convenient or desirable place; and they oftentimes do not provide for snow transport or do not handle sufficient quantities of snow to make transport efficient. The instant invention seeks to provide a new and novel manually operated snow removal and transport device that uses modern material advantageously to provide better solutions to these problems.
I provide a rigid scoop with a trailing elongate smooth surfaced bag of plastic to receive and transport snow on an underlying supportable snow covered surface. Plastic is ideally suited for this purpose because it provides a low friction sliding contact with an underlying snow surface and because its pliable nature allows ready conformation with that surface without excessive physical disturbance, both to allow the efficient sliding transport of the snow filled plastic bag over the supportative surface with expenditure of a small amount of energy. The tool is also of relatively low mass, which again, does not require the expenditure of much energy in moving it over a distance. The flexibility of the bag allows closure of the rearward end by a drawstring type mechanism so that the rearward end might be readily opened, from a distance at the operator's position, at the end of snow transport to allow ready disposition of transported snow.
The provision of a scoop-like frame with a trailing bag of flexible material to collect snow or other material has heretofore become known, per se. In general such devices have been concerned with the collection of material other than snow and especially various herbage and yard debris. This type of known device has generally collected and contained the debris in a bag for later disposition in the containing bag and therefore has not provided a reusable type bag with a secondary closable orifice that allows ready removal and deposition of the bag's contents. Again, known devices have commonly been concerned only with a scooping or filling mode of use and commonly have not provided any particular means of effectively or efficiently transporting the filled bag, whereas the instant invention provides a handle structure that allows manual determination of either a filling or transport mode to allow transport of relative large loads. My invention also provides a relatively large bag for snow transport to make that transport efficient, whereas prior art devices commonly provided a relatively small bag because their use was more concerned with the collection and containment of debris rather than its transport and if the mass of such debris became too great during collection further motion would be too difficult. All of these functional advantages are particularly and essentially related to the structure of my invention and are uniquely combined in it to distinguish it from the prior art.